Having achieved some calm, where do we go from there? Seeking experience is a matter for the measuring mind. This mind doesn’t experience fulfilment. Attuning to the heart, there is access to the richness of a generosity and a virtue that doesn’t need a point. It is innately enjoyable and frees us from measurement.
Life is generally measured in terms of clock-and-calendar time. However, to attempt to live accordingly is stressful, binding us to impatience, regret, and expectation. The familiarity of these patterns makes them ‘myself’. In Dhamma practice, we attune to an embodied stability that yet moves us into fresh presence. Our practice then is free from seeking certainty.
Ajahn Karunadhammo, on a visit from Abhayagiri monastery in California, reflects on four aids to our development on the spiritual path, namely developing kalyanamitta (spiritual friendship), listening to Dhamma, using wise attention, and practicing in accordance with Dhamma. He then discusses four spiritual practices that the Buddha encouraged us to develop: asuba contemplation, cultivation of metta (loving kindness), anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing), and the perception of anicca (impermanence).
Luang Por Sudhiro, abbot of Wat Pah Kanjanabhisek in Khon Kaen, Thailand, offers reflections on the life of the Buddha during a short but auspicious visit to Chithurst. He details the Buddha-to-be’s renunciation of his comfortable lifestyle for one of asceticism, abandoning this when he remembered an experience of peace he experienced in childhood, and finally deciding to teach the way to enlightenment to those with little dust in their eyes.
On the occasion of Chithurst’s annual Kathina festivities, reflections are offered on the beauty of generosity, a safe and non-manipulative gift to others, and on the value of renunciation. When we can relinquish our own personal preferences, a sense that ‘this is bigger than me’ can arise, and a heart that is larger than the personality can be cultivated. The monastic sangha reminds others to uphold virtuous behaviour, and is a sign of stability, a bright, shining lantern in an otherwise darkened world.
Ajahn Siripannyo, abbot of Wat Dtao Dtum in Thailand, during a rare and auspicious visit to Cittaviveka, offers his thoughts on the many benefits and joys of living a monastic life. On the eve of the annual Kathina festival, he points out the harmony that is created during the sewing of the robe, and explains how it is the smaller rituals that bind together the larger tradition, establishing a conduit for goodness.
Ajahn Cittapala reflects on SN 22.1, the Nakulapita Sutta, explaining how an aging, afflicted body does not have to mean an afflicted, suffering mind. She shows how the not self nature of the body means that we can let go of identification with it, and hence be free of sorrow and suffering.
Ajahn Ahimsako investigates the Sabbasava Sutta, the Discourse on all Asavas. Looking at the 3 asavas (outflows), of sense desire, becoming, and ignorance, he explains how meditation can illuminate the more subtle outflows of the mind, and examines the 7 skilful methods outlined by the Buddha to reduce and ultimately overcome the asavas.
Ajahn Karuniko reflects on the five hindrances to meditation practice, and points out that it is more challenging, but essential, to be able to work with these hindrances when involved in a lot of activity and busy social interactions. He also gives examples on dealing with fear, when a Thai meditation master encountered an elephant on his walking meditation path, and from his own experience of hiking in the snowy mountains of Slovenia and crossing a perilous ridge.